The present invention relates generally to a carton blank made of a sheet material such as corrugated paperboard, and is particularly directed to a completely erected carton or container made from the blank for packaging irregularly shaped articles, such as partially assembled bicycles. The invention is specifically disclosed as a carton blank that can be partially erected into a flat shipping configuration, and later placed into a packaging configuration for use as a container to hold articles in more than one containment volume, all made from the single carton blank.
Corrugated paperboard cartons are quite common in the art, and this includes paperboard cartons designed to hold partially assembled bicycles. In conventional such paperboard cartons, separate inserts have been used to strengthen the container, and for adding a certain amount of padding to the structure. Such inserts represent additional parts that are required to properly construct the final erected carton in its configuration for use in holding a partially assembled bicycle. These extra parts can be a problem at the point of filling the carton with its typical contents (e.g., a partially assembled bicycle), especially when such extra parts may become lost or otherwise temporarily separated from the main carton itself when it is time for the carton to receive the partially assembled bicycle.
Some primary objectives of good carton design include the avoidance of waste, and the construction of a final container that requires as few separate pieces as possible. The most desirable form for a container or carton that is to be used for shipping a product is for this container to be constructed of a single piece of sheet material as a unitary structure, from which the entire container would be formed, including all of its strengthening and padding sub-structures.
The type of container or carton that is required for packaging a bicycle has an inherent weakness because the carton typically must be relatively long, high, and narrow. Internal strengthening is needed so that the carton and its contents are able to withstand the pressures of stacking and handling by forklifts, and the like during storage and shipping. The required internal strengthening has usually been in the form of internal bracing that is embodied into the carton design. Usually this internal bracing comprises the same or similar type of paperboard sheet material used for the body of the carton itself, which is folded into various shapes to form the strengthening struts.
A carton for containing a partially assembled bicycle often requires more than one separate compartment to hold a main sub-assembly, and also to hold various bicycle parts or other contents, and to prevent them from migrating inside the container during shipping. The internal bracing provided has often been arranged to perform this separate compartment function. Most of the conventional cartons for holding structures such as partially assembled bicycles have used inserts for strengthening and for any padding constructs of the container. The separate inserts are commonly made from separate panels, which often are of the same type of corrugated sheet material used for the main container. As noted above, when more than one separate piece is required for a complete carton, there are problems inherent with controlling the inventory of these various parts of the container, and further there will be additional work involved in erecting the multiple portions of a container that require multiple parts.
Some conventional cartons have been used without the internal bracing and padding, in which the carton is made of a rectangular shape. It is difficult, however, to begin with a blank that starts out as a rectangular sheet made of paperboard or other material, and then to shape that rectangular sheet so as to form the strengthening constructs and any other required padding, or other type of structural holding portions, out of the single unitary rectangular sheet. This is particularly, true if the carton manufacturer is attempting to ship the carton in a flat form to the packager, and particularly if no separate parts are to be used for the final assembly of the carton.
While the carton manufacturer desires to form a carton blank that can be shipped flat with no additional assembly steps (using separate parts) required by the packager, it is also important for the packager to be able to assemble a carton blank without the use of any extra separate parts. One solution is to fasten the extra parts to the interior of the erected carton, but that then defeats the desired goal of shipping a flat carton blank to the manufacturer/packager. Any assembly of separate parts that is required by the manufacturer/packager will create additional steps and complications (such as inventory control).
Accordingly, it is a primary advantage of the present invention to provide a paperboard carton formed from a single unitary piece of corrugated sheet material. It is another advantage of the present invention to use a paperboard carton formed from a unitary piece that can be erected into a single integral package for shipping a partially assembled bicycle, or to ship some other size-restricted product. It is a further advantage of the present invention to use a paperboard carton formed from a unitary piece of sheet material that provides an internal divider within the erected carton, in which however, the divider is part of the unitary structure of the original carton blank. It is yet another advantage of the present invention to provide a carton with a tongue member that is designed to hold a wheel of a partially assembled bicycle in place, in which the tongue member is constructed as part of the carton""s divider, and wherein all of these structures are part of the unitary blank of sheet material.
Additional advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention.
To achieve the foregoing and other advantages, and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an improved shipping carton is provided that is formed from a unitary blank comprising a sheet of material such as corrugated paperboard, and which includes an internal strut column/support member that acts as a divider and a support structure. The shipping carton formed from the unitary blank is suitable for packaging articles of irregular shape, such as a partially assembled bicycle. The unitary blank is formed from sheet material in a shape, from one end of the blank to the other end, as follows:
1. a first partial back wall portion having an outer vertical edge, and a glue strip located along the outer vertical edge for securing the first partial back wall portion to the surface of a second partial back wall portion,
2. a first end wall,
3. a front wall having a cutout suitable for use as a handhold,
4. a second end wall,
5. the aforementioned second partial back wall portion having a scored fold line with a proximal glue strip that is to be mated to the glue strip located on the first partial back wall portion, and also having a cutout suitable for use as a second handhold,
6. a strut column/support member that is angularly pivotable along the fold line of the second partial back wall portion, and which includes a tongue having a glue strip for securing it to the inner surface of the front wall, the strut column/support member having an elongated channel cutout usable for holding packaged articles in place, the strut column/support member having a second tongue on the distal portion of a second fold line that is at a right angle to the fold line of the second partial back wall portion, this second tongue having a deformable area that is formed by perforated a fold lines, the deformable area also usable for holding packaged articles in place.
Each of the adjacent walls have a (vertical) scored fold line between them and are thereby foldable with respect to each other along these scored fold lines. In addition, each of the walls extend upward and downward to form top flaps and bottom flaps, separated by (horizontal) scored fold lines, in which these flaps form the top and bottom of the carton once fully erected. In a preferred embodiment, the flaps are separated from their respective associated walls by a co-linear (horizontal) scored fold line with respect to the carton blank""s appearance when it is laid out flat.
The strut column/support member and its upper second tongue are separated by a scored fold line, as noted above, and this scored fold line preferably is co-linear with respect to the other (horizontal) scored fold lines that separate the top flaps from their respective walls. The strut column/support member folds into the carton when it is partially erected, thereby forming a (vertical) structural column between the front wall and back wall of the container. This strut column/support member not only provides a structural support between the front and back walls of the container, but also creates a separate compartment for packaging loose parts such as those associated with a partially assembled bicycle. Moreover, the elongated. channel cutout of the vertical strut column/support member is useful for maintaining a wheel of the bicycle in a desired relationship to the erected carton, and also provides shock protection to the bicycle wheel. Furthermore, the second tongue can be folded downward such that its deformable area is pushed against the upper surface of the bicycle""s wheel, thereby deforming along perforated fold lines to create xe2x80x9cfingersxe2x80x9d of the deformable area, and also thereby more rigidly maintaining the structural integrity for maintaining the bicycle wheel in its desired relationship to the erected carton.
The shipping carton or container of the present invention can be partially erected into a flat preform for shipment from the carton manufacturer to the manufacturer of the parts or sub-assemblies that are to be packaged therewithin. While in this flat xe2x80x9cshippingxe2x80x9d preform configuration, the strut column/support member is already fixedly attached to the inner surfaces of both the front wall and the back wall, and the strut column/support member will maintain that fixed relationship at various angles, depending upon whether or not the carton remains flat, or becomes opened into its rectangular product-receiving or xe2x80x9cpackagingxe2x80x9d configuration. Once the flat preform has been received at the manufacturer/packager who will use the carton for packaging a product, the carton can be adjusted so that its end wall pieces become substantially rectangular to the front and back walls, which will also automatically cause the strut column/support member to maintain a right angle relationship to the front and back walls. The bottom flaps can then be folded along the scored fold lines so that the carton has a fold bottom, and then the manufactured item (such as a bicycle) can then be inserted within the almost completely erected carton. Once the manufactured articles have been placed therewithin, the top flaps can be folded along the scored fold lines to fold the top surface of the carton, and thereby make it ready for final shipping.
The procedure for utilizing the paperboard unitary blank of the present invention is as follows: once the carton blank has been manufactured, the front wall is folded with respect to its second end at a right angular relationship, and then the back wall is also folded with respect to the second end at a second right angular relationship. When this occurs, the back wall and front wall will be substantially parallel to one another. The strut column/support member is then folded at a substantially right angle with respect to the back wall and the first tongue of the strut column/support member is then folded at a substantially right angle so that the glue area (or glue tab) of the first tongue will mate against the inner surface of the front wall. Preferably, a second glue area will already have been applied to this same area on the inner surface of the front wall, so that the two glue areas will mate to one another.
Once that has been accomplished, the first end is folded at a substantially right angle with respect to the front wall, and then the first partial back wall is folded at a substantially right angle with respect to the first end wall. When that occurs, a glue area of the first partial back wall should mate up to a similar glue area on the outer surface of the second partial back wall (which is the back wall""s main portion). Once these glue areas are mated together, the carton will have a substantially rectangular appearance, when seen from above if standing in a vertical position. In this configuration, the carton is in a first preform configuration, and can be folded flat merely by causing the right angle comers to fold inward on two of the diagonal comers of the rectangular xe2x80x9cboxxe2x80x9d as seen from above. By folding the carton flat, it is ready for shipping in its most compact configuration (in a xe2x80x9cshippingxe2x80x9d configuration).
Now that the carton is shipped and after it is received by the packager, the carton is ready for its final assembly. The procedure now is to unfold the carton from its flat preform shipping configuration, and to cause it to be placed back into its rectangular or xe2x80x9cpackagingxe2x80x9d configuration. The bottom tabs are then folded inward and glued or otherwise sealed to form a solid bottom for the carton. The second tongue that is pivotally attached to the strut column/support member along a fold line is now available for being pushed downward. If a bicycle is to be the product shipped within this carton, then a partially assembled bicycle is first placed within the large open area along the top of the carton such that one of the bicycle""s wheels is placed into the elongated channel cutout. After that has occurred, the second tongue can be folded down against the wheel of the bicycle such that its deformable area is pressed against the wheel of the bicycle. This second tongue is to be pressed with sufficient firmness so that the deformable area of the second tongue will tend to split along the perforated fold lines, and the deformable xe2x80x9cfingersxe2x80x9d will then hold the bicycle wheel in place. Any other bicycle parts would then be placed into the smaller compartment, and the container becomes ready for final assembly. At this time, the top flaps can be folded down and sealed so that the final shipping carton completely encloses the packaged bicycle.
Still other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in this art from the following description and drawings wherein there is described and shown a preferred embodiment of this invention in one of the best modes contemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various, obvious aspects all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.